CCA inaugural Secondary School under 17's Cricket T20 Tournament got off to a flying start

The inaugural Secondary School under 17's Cricket T20 tournament Organized by Coast Cricket Association got off to a flying start last weekend with 4 games being played at Coast Gymkhana Cricket Ground and the Mombasa Sports Club.

A brilliant initiative taken by CCA in organizing such tournaments to once again produce players to graduate to represent the National team in years to come from the Mombasa County. It was in the 70's and 80's when such caliber of tournaments were being played of which produced several Cricketers who went on to represent Kenya. The late Anoop Chotai, Sibtain Kasssamali, Sudhir Solanki , Asif Karim, Mohammed Sawjani to name a few came to be spotted from such school tournaments eventually to go on and be selected for the Kenya National team.

In the first match hot favorites Shree Swaminarayan Academy were drawn against Oshwal Academy at Coast Gymkhana Ground. Shree Swaminarayan won the toss and chose to bat first. Dev Hirani and Trikant Gami putting on a solid opening stand of 60 odd before Gami was dismissed by Puru taking a return catch off his own bowling. In came Pritesh Hirani who along with Dev scored briskly. In the end SSA posted total of 162/7 in 20 overs with Dev Hirani top scoring with 45 , Gami 35 and Pritesh 35. The pick of the bowlers for Oshwal Academy were Harkishan Singh 2/14 and Shukan Mehta 2/19. In reply Oshwal Academy got off to a disastrous start losing the stylish Puru Sharma for a duck, but Viral Shah and Shukant Sharma steadied the innings against a very tight bowling and fielding by Shree Swaminarayan Academy which restricted OA to reach 81 for the loss of 7 wickets in their allotted 20 overs , Shukant Mehta top scoring with 39, Viral Shah the only other Oshwal Academy batsman reaching double figures with 22 runs. Shree Swaminarayan Academy used 10 bowlers with Raj Gami and Vilok Halai being pick of the bowlers ,both picking up 2 wickets and conceding only 2 runs.
Shree Swaminarayan Academy winning quite comfortably by 81 runs.( Scorecard)

In the other match of the morning session Agakhan Academy faced Jaffery Academy at Mombasa Sports club in a very low scoring affair. JA winning the toss and opted to bat first .Suraj Patel opening the batting for Jaffery Academy top scored with 23 as JA posted a total of 63 all out. Renish Kenjiyani 2/4, Kamil Sorathya 2/9, Aliasgher Jafferjee 2/12 and Wahhab Jawaid 2/20 sharing the wickets for AA. In reply Agakhan Academy's top order was blown away by Sukhraj Singh with a devastating spell of 4 overs , conceding 5 runs and picking up 4 wickets ably supported by Anthony 3/6 hence restricting AA to 35 runs All out. Hamza Afzal top scoring for Agakhan Academy with 13 runs.(
Scorecard)

In the Afternoon session Shree Swaminaryan Academy won the toss against Agakhan Academy and posted an imposing total of 191/ 7 in 20 overs. Once again Trikant Gami (25) and Dev Hirani (54) giving Shree Swaminarayan Academy a flying start putting up 50 in 6 overs. Pritesh Hirani played a cameo falling short of his half century by one run . AA bowlers shared the wickets with only a notable spell by Priyansh Kaushik 1/23 . In reply AA were bowled out for a partly with Mr Extras being the top scorer with 15 runs .None of the Agakhan Academy batsmen got into double figures .Niran Halai 4/3 and Hiren Halai 2/4 were the pick of the bowlers for Shree Swaminarayan Academy.(
Scorecard)

At the same time Jaffery Academy were fighting it out against a much improved OA at Mombasa Sports Club. OA won the toss and elected to bat first with Shukant Mehta and Puru Sharma putting up match winning opening Stand of 63 before Puru Sharma was out for 34 runs. Mehta remained not out scoring 43 runs and Jaffery Academy bowlers very generous by giving away 35 extras thus the total reading 123/2 at the end of 20 overs. Brothers Tilak and Suraj Patel being the only wicket takers with 1/12 and 1/20 respectively. Jaffery Academy in reply fell short of 41 runs by posting 81 runs for the loss of 7 wickets .once again brothers Tilak and Suraj Patel being the main contributors with 22 and 15 respectively. For Oshwal Academy Ambuj Rajan bowled impressively picking up 2 wickets for 4 runs and Puru Sharma 1/5.(
Scorecard)

At the end of the Day 1 of the tournament all teams have played 2 matches each with Shree Swaminarayan Academy sitting pretty on top with 4 points followed by Jaffery Academy with 2 points, Oshwal Academy also with 2 points and Agakhan Academy yet to get any point.
( Point Table)

Tournament remaining fixture will be played on 6th Febuary 2016 with Shree Swaminarayan Academy take on Jaffery Academy at Coast Gymkhana ground while Oshwal Academy take on Aga Khana Academy at Mombasa Sports Club ground. Top 2 finisher on table point will play a Final on Coast Gymkhana Ground at 2:00PM while 3rd and 4th team will play at Mombasa Sports Club ground for a 3rd place.